Since many issues have occurred or will in the future, it is important to see what regulations have been put into effect towards location-tracking. Unfortunately, in the United States, there is not a single law regarding the use of online privacy. In terms of cell phone location-tracking, the legal status has tremendously changed. In 1986, under the Stored Communications Act, the police were able to access records under reasonable grounds if it was relevant to their investigation. As technology increased in the upcoming years, it was crucial to change regulations regarding privacy concerns. Then in the case, United States v. Carpenter, police tracked the defendants, Timothy Carpenter, and thousands of other suspects cell phone location records for a criminal investigation without a warrant. Yes, they did this without a warrant which is insane but according to the Third-Party Doctrine, the cell service provider was considered a third party to the lower courts. Once the case was brought to the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, it was decided that the police is not able to access cell phone location without a warrant because this violates the Fourth Amendment in the Constitution.Since there are no legitimate laws with location tracking, the courts happen to conclude whether the action violates the Fourth Amendment. However, now with a warrant, the government is able to track locations by placing devices to monitor movements legally. This occurred in the case, United States v. Jones, where investigators placed a GPS device under the defendant, Antoine Jones, car. This was ruled as a search under the Fourth Amendment, which meant this was totally legal.This case did not address other digital location-tracking, including through cell phones, consumer electronics devices, and etc. However, state legislatures are trying to address laws that require consent to track an individual’s location. This article shows what states have tried to prohibit the location of an individual without consent. To get a better visual representation, this map shows what states have some type of protection. As you can see, many states like Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and etc. are still unprotected, which is an issue! There are no federal privacy laws that prevent the misuse of the general public’s information. This means that law enforcement can still track locations digitally just through the devices we use today! Not only should we be aware of law enforcement, but we should take note of the major companies that profit off our information. However, in California, the California Consumer Privacy Act, only gives the state’s population some rights to their data. They have the right to know where their information is disclosed to. However, individuals must take matters into their own hands and reach out to the companies themselves. Realistically, this is quite a drag and too much work, especially if an individual has the majority of their personal information posted in the digital world. But this is definitely a step in the right direction! Now the entire country must move in the same direction as well because this is not a federal action.  

 

Surprisingly, China, which is known to be an overly surveilled country, is taking steps to create a data protection regulatory system. The Chinese government is trying to establish rules for consent for data collection. They hope to build this secure trust with consumers through the digital economy. As a thriving nation, the country is trying to set rules to protect their people in ways the United States failed to do so. Maybe after the Chinese establish their rules, the United States will follow their steps to protect the entire country. In this past, China has done some extreme actions to gain data especially from children! In the summer of 2019, over 17,00 students had received smart watches that tracked their locations. This was done so parents could keep track of their kids. But we do know that their parents were not the only ones gaining the data of their locations… On January 25th,2019, a press conference was held in order to discuss the collection and use of personal information. It was stressed how operators must provide users with the option to refuse any advertising or news with their personal data. So, after this conference, in May, China released a new data security regulation, which details measures to protect the rights of citizens. Article 11 emphasizes how users must agree in order for network operators to obtain the information, and once this is done, the network operator MUST provide the business functions that occur with the information. This means that the user will be notified what will be done with their information. After informing the user, network operators must file a record with their local network information department, shown in Article 15. This seems pretty reasonable to ensure that there is a record of what the network operator has done with the personal information. Although, this is not a law established in the civil law system, which means not companies do not take this seriously. But this does not mean China is sitting back from ensuring privacy.Similar to the European GDPR, China is in fact taking steps to create a law to ensure data privacy in the next five years.